At the time when this article is being written, the air is thick with optimism and hope that Constitutional Amendment Bill on Goods & Services Tax (GST) will be passed by the Rajya Sabha in this monsoon session itself. It appears that the government is inclined to accept certain amendments and therefore, if it is passe...

On 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) decided by referendum to leave the European Union (EU). Once the UK officially requests the initiation of the negotiations (via the so-called Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union that lays down the provisions governing the withdrawal process), the EU and the UK will start negotiating ...

India is now poised to launch the next generation reform on the indirect tax front. Fiscal policy experts and economists have confirmed that a comprehensive and broad based consumption tax on supply of goods and services, collected at each stage of value added within the supply chain, is the best method for levying and collecting indirect ...

The recent developments in the global steel crisis and the distinct features of the European Union (hereinafter the ‘EU’) have underlined the challenges currently faced by the EU trade policy. The EU is an economic and political union of 28 Member States with a specific institutional and decision-making framework. ...

The Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (‘DTAA’) entered into by India with Mauritius on 24th August, 1982 and made effective from 1st April, 1983 was the first of its kind wherein the right to tax the capital gains arising to a resident of Mauritius from transfer of shares of an Indian company was completely ...

The present-day commercial landscape involves a variety of transactions which are structured in various manners. Assessees under Central Excise ordinarily discharge duty on the goods cleared by them on the basis of invoices raised indicating the value of these goods as on the date of the...

Recent WTO discussions have centered on the question of China’s entitlement to Market Economy status (MES) post 11 December, 2016. China has always interpreted the clause to mean that post-2016, it would automatically be accorded MES. The Members of the WTO appear to be divided on the issue, with Brazil [see end note 1],Japan [se...

Last year, the Indian Government introduced a scheme for voluntary declaration of undisclosed foreign income and assets for resident taxpayers under the Black Money Act. A similar scheme is proposed by the Finance Bill, 2016 referred as ‘Income Declaration Scheme, 2016’ (&lsquo...

‘Ease of doing business’ is the buzz-word at present and with the Indian Union Cabinet going ahead with the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, it seems that conditions for doing business in India are bound to improve with significant cut in number of forms, declarations and permissions. Role of Indian judiciary including...

The Madras High Court in the case of Eveready Industries India Ltd. v. CESTAT, Chennai [2016-TIOL-676-Mad-CX] has held that refund granted by an authority cannot be denied by way of issuance of Show Cause Notice (SCN) in cases where the order has not been subject to review.